The right to drag us all into their ego trips? If there is a war maybe the soldiers should go after the leaders first. Eliminate the need for the fighting, it isn't the soldiers that get us into the war, it's the leaders.

Airplane brings the purpose of this song to the forefront. CSN romanticized it to the point that I don't think many people recognized thst it was about the survivors of a nuclear war.

there is so much being expressed in this song and as you point out many people don't get it. The song opens with Kantner singing "If you smile at me, you know I will understand cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language" and the following line by Grace clearly shows that this is a small group of survivors who have encountered each other as strangers.

Then comes a major point made by the line sung by Marty Balin as one survivor speaking to another "You must try some of my purple berries, I've been eating them for 6 or 7 weeks now, haven't got sick once. Probably keep us both alive."

That line is about those of us who were, and still are, people who would have the humanity and love for each other to share what little we might have no matter the circumstances. It is an understanding and belief from deep within that without an "us" there is no "me" and "us" is what it is about to the very end. To the last purple berry. Even if that's all we have.

Line "I haven't got sick once" he's letting the listener know the berries weren't poisoned from a nuclear blast and that is one of the things that would happen from such an event. Food and water could sicken you or kill you.